2-faced diplomacy good for Cuba and U.S. business

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Like the Yankees-Red Sox, East Coast-West Coast hip-hop, Superman-Lex Luthor, Cuba and the United States of America are contentious sparring partners.

The ideological divide has been framed in almost a half century of bickering, with both sides lobbing firebombs along the 90 mile-stretch of ocean-blue that separates the countries.

Fidel Castro blames Uncle Sam for most of what ails Cuba. George W. Bush continues a bipartisan policy of isolation that dates back to the Kennedy administration.

Nobody has dared stray too far away from that hard-line rhetoric because it's political suicide to think otherwise. Cuban-American exiles are a strong voting bloc. Of the 1.5 million registered Hispanic voters in Florida, they represent about 540,000.

Many, understandably so, remain entrenched in a hands-off policy in regards to Castro's Cuba. You don't make deals with the devil.

The terms of engagement demand the obligatory campaign pit stop in Little Havana, where it seems every presidential candidate has made the pilgrimage to a mom-and-pop Cuban restaurant to echo the vitriolic spiel about Castro. At last check, one of those restaurants still has a Ronald Reagan menu special along one of its windows.

It makes for a nice photo op, and it certainly appeases the masses, but it is also the epitome of hypocrisy.

The U.S. and Cuba are cozy business partners. Cuba allocated about $543 million for the purchases of U.S. goods in 2007, a wide range of exports that include farm products such as corn, wheat, rice and poultry. The transactions involve about 300 products from more than 30 states. Better yet, all payments are made in cash. A loophole in the embargo against Cuba permits direct commercial sales of American food and agricultural products.

Meanwhile, if Maria wants to send $100 to her ailing grandmother in Cuba, she can't because the Bush administration ratcheted up the economic squeeze in 2004 with some of the most restrictive measures on travel to Cuba and remittances.

This twisted logic is the ultimate of two-faced diplomacy.

U.S.-Cuba relations aren't going to make the Top 5 list in any presidential debate, but it's a key issue in a critical state. The tug-of-war for Florida's 27 electoral votes could decide the presidency. The hope is that for once, everyone engages in a debate that is practical and purposeful, instead of the usual contradictory smoke signals.

It's still hazy out there as the presidential field narrows to three.

John McCain will continue the hard-line, if not belligerent, exchanges with Cuba. Hillary Clinton echoes similar sentiments. Only Barack Obama has a philosophical shift in his voice, saying he wants to ease U.S. travel restrictions.

The question is, will anyone listen, or will any conciliatory move be perceived as sympathetic outreach to Castro?

"The post-Castro era began July 31, 2006, when he stepped down [after undergoing abdominal surgery]," said Millie Herrera, the President of the Democratic Hispanic Caucus of Florida. "That was a wake-up call for all Cuban-Americans that they have been lied to for 40 years and that Republicans are not going to free Cuba."

With the clock ticking on his administration, Bush stepped into the fray again a few days ago by ripping Obama's willingness to engage on more practical terms.

"I'm suggesting now is not the time -- not to talk with RaM-zl Castro," Bush said. "He's nothing more than an extension of what his brother did, which was to ruin an island, and imprison people because of their beliefs."

Sadly, that's very true. But Bush's crackdown also amounts to punitive damage against Maria's ailing grandmother and thousands like her.

Family values, anyone?

This soap opera is working on its fifth decade, and you may as well be airing grainy black-and-white reruns. Nothing changes. Castro, who has officially ceded power to RaM-zl but remains very much a behind-the-scenes power player, may end up as the lead in the Spanish version of Weekend at Bernie's.

You might find Fidel propped up against a lectern, "waving" his hands in a defiant gesture against his arch-nemesis, Uncle Sam.

It's all for show anyway. Castro is one of Uncle Sam's best buddies. I can give you at least 543 million reasons why.